New rules to speed up housebuilding

The government has announced major changes that housebuilders must follow, which include developers having to declare delivery timeframes before they receive planning permission, ensuring that sites aren’t left half-finished for years.

The new rules will see housebuilders submitting annual records to show their progress to councils to keep them on track, and those who secure planning permission just to trade land speculatively or repeatedly fail to build on inserted sites could face a ‘Delayed Homes Penalty’ per home, which would be paid to local authorities.

Large housing sites, those producing over 2,000 homes, can take 14 years to build, although areas were more than 40 per cent of homes are affordable can be built in half of the time, which is why the government is also testing a new requirement for large sites to be mixed tenure by default.

Deputy prime minister and housing secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “This government has taken radical steps to overhaul the planning system to get Britain building again after years of inaction. In the name of delivering security for working people, we are backing the builders not the blockers. Now it’s time for developers to roll up their sleeves and play their part.

“We’re going even further to get the homes we need. No more sites with planing permission gathering dust for decades while a generation struggle to get on the housing ladder. Through our Plan for Change, we will deliver 1.5 million homes, fix the housing crisis and make the dream of home ownership a reality for working people.”

Alongside this, the government is publishing a planning reform working paper titled ‘Speeding Up Build Out,’ which will set out proposals including an overall strategy to speed up build out, a new proposal on a Delayed Homes Penalty, and confirmation the government will implement a new power introduced by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 relating to the compulsory purchase of land.